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Macros need a lot of improvement


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I've just decided to ditch the Adobe tax and get properly to grips with Affinity. There are so many things about it I really really like, but the macro function seems to be a hangover from the old Photoplus days - in that everything I try to record ends up with a 'can't do that' message, for example, right mouse click on layer (nothing happens), selecting multiple layers, or the killer, trying to move a layer in the stack or in to a group.  It's OK for really simple stuff that only takes a few moments to do manually anyway, but that's it. Until it can actually record most of what I am doing I can't really use it.

Are there any plans to make this tool more usable?

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17 minutes ago, Howard Worf said:

or the killer, trying to move a layer in the stack or in to a group.

Select the layer you want in the stack/group
Edit > Cut

Select the stack or group
Edit > Paste Inside

Note: A lot of the "can't do that" messages can be done by using the menus, so always look to see if a menu command/sequence will do it, before assuming that because it can't be done the "normal" way" you can't do it in a macro - there are many workarounds when macro recording to get the same result, so always post here (the forum) if you get stuck doing something in a macro
 

20 minutes ago, Howard Worf said:

Are there any plans to make this tool more usable?

No.

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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4 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Select the layer you want in the stack/group
Edit > Cut

Select the stack or group
Edit > Paste Inside

A paste step in an Affinity macro will paste the object that was on the clipboard at the time of recording the macro, not an object on the clipboard at the time of playback.

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11 minutes ago, anon2 said:

A paste step in an Affinity macro will paste the object that was on the clipboard at the time of recording the macro, not an object on the clipboard at the time of playback.

Your right, it's been a while since I needed to add something to a group

Move the layer you want in the group to just above the group then Arrange > Move Inside

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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19 hours ago, Howard Worf said:

It's OK for really simple stuff that only takes a few moments to do manually anyway, but that's it.

Not true. Even with its many limitations some users have created some fairly complex macros that would be tedious (& error prone) if done manually. You can find some of them by searching the Resources forum.

22 hours ago, Howard Worf said:

Are there any plans to make this tool more usable?

The developers have said they will be looking at this at some point but I think it is safe to say that for the immediate future other things have a much higher priority.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Thanks for the replies. Just after I'd posted my original comment I decided to create a simple macro to export a full sized jpg to the source folder. First step failure - export file menu cannot record 'export item'. I've given up even trying for now. Maybe a list of the things macro recording can do would be useful?

I'm going to take the suggestion to look at the resources forum.

Thanks again for the input.

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Are you aware that you can write batch procedures that will open files from a specified source, apply one or more macros, then export them to another specified folder. 

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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22 minutes ago, John Rostron said:

Are you aware that you can write batch procedures that will open files from a specified source, apply one or more macros, then export them to another specified folder. 

John

+1.  Batch tool in AP + macros, pretty powerful.  It's certainly true you can't do as much as Adobe "actions" plus scripting options, so if you're expecting that, need to reset your expectations a bit.  But you can definitely do a lot more than you may realize at first glance.  

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